Resolution (III) of the St. Petersburg Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. on the Question of a Duma Ministry[1]

Published:Vperyod, No. 10, June 6, 1906.

      Published according to theVperyodtext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1965,

      Moscow,Volume 10,

      pages514-516.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
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(1)Thedemand for the appointment at the present time of a
 responsible Ministry representing the majority in the
 State Duma is mistaken and ambiguous, for:

(a)the appointment of such a Ministry would not really signify the
 transfer of power from the autocracy to a
 popular representative body;

(b)in essence, it would be a deal between the liberal bourgeoisie
 and the autocracy, concluded at the expense of
 the people and behind its back;

(c)in view of the present alignment of real political forces, the
 proletariat has no guarantee that this deal will give it real
 security in waging its class struggle (at all events, not real enough
 to compensate for the material harm that will be caused to the
 development of proletarian class-consciousness by the active support
 of a bourgeois deal transacted in a period of revolutionary upswing).

(2)Inthe light of the foregoing, the demand for the appointment of
 a responsible Duma Ministry can only serve to strengthen
 constitutional illusions and corrupt the revolutionary consciousness
 of the people, by creating hopes that power will be peacefully
 transferred to the people, and by obscuring the fundamental tasks of
 the struggle for freedom;— Therefore, this meeting resolves:

(1)thatthe proletariat cannot at present support the demand for the
 appointment of a Duma Ministry;

(2)thatthe proletariat supports the idea of forming an Executive Committee
 consisting of representatives of the revolutionary elements in the Duma, for
 the purpose of co-ordinating the activities of the local free organisations
 of the people.

[1]Theresolution was linked with the conflict between the
Central Committee and the St. Petersburg Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. over the
attitude towards the Duma. Together with Resolution I I. of the St. Petersburg
Committee (see pp. 481-82 of this volume), i C constituted the Bolsheviks’
tactical platform, on the basis of which a discussion was held and elections
took place to the inter-district conference of the St. Petersburg organisation
(the conference met on June 11-12 [24-25], 1906, in Terijoki, Finland, under
Lenin’s leadership).

Vperyodpublished the resolution with the following editorial comment:
“The editorial board ofVperyodfully shares the main
propositions of the resolution, and recommends the comrades to propose it at
workers’ meetings.”